Benjamin R. LaBranche

Director, Class of 2015

Ben LaBranche has been an associate with the firm of Rozas and Rozas since January of 2012 and represents clients in all State and Federal Courts in Louisiana. Ben LaBranche is also a member of the Federal CJA panel for the Middle and Western Districts of Louisiana and has now gained experience trying jury trials in Federal Court. He is a graduate from Louisiana State University where he obtained a degree in Business Management. He then received his Juris Doctorate from Southern University Law Center in 2004 and was admitted to the Louisiana Bar in October 2004. After two years of private practice which focused primarily on civil litigation, he decided to join the Public Defender’s Office in Baton Rouge. He remained in the East Baton Rouge Public Defender’s Office for 5 years where he became one of the most respected Public Defenders in South Louisiana. In his first year as a Public Defender, he tried more Criminal Jury Trials than any other lawyer in Baton Rouge.

Ben has represented clients charged with murder, felony and misdemeanor DWI, Vehicular Homicide, Armed Robbery, all types of drug violations, crimes of violence, sex crimes, theft, embezzlement, and white collar crimes. He is fluent in Spanish and represents many individuals in Court who do not speak English. He also has experience representing clients who suffer from mental illness and have sanity and/or competency issues. In 2010, he represented a client charged with Aggravated Second Degree Battery for an alleged stabbing. The accused faced a mandatory life sentence as a habitual offender. A unanimous jury verdict was returned in 20 minutes acquitting his client of all felony charges, and his client was immediately released from prison. This was one of the quickest verdicts in favor of a defendant ever decided in Baton Rouge.

Ben LaBranche is active in many professional organizations for criminal lawyers: locally, statewide, and nationally. He has been the president of the Baton Rouge Bar of Criminal Justice since 2009, and sits on the board of directors for the Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, which honored him in 2011 with its "President's Award" for his service to the organization. In 2008, he attended the National Criminal Defense College in Macon, Georgia. Ben is a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and presently serves on its Indigent Defense and Membership Committees. He has also been a guest lecturer at the LSU and Southern University Law Centers in the areas of Criminal Law and Indigent Defense.